Each year revellers from all around Spain, Europe and the world gather in Puerta del Sol, Madrid, to ring in the New Year in style.
In the Spanish speaking world, New Year’s Eve is called Nochevieja (literally “old night”). This year’s celebration at Puerta del Sol will be a special one as it is the first time in six years the plaza is fully open and free of safety barriers, construction equipment and other obstacles. In the past six years construction workers had been busily building the underground regional train station (now operational) and pedestrianising the above ground areas. It’s been rough going for this city, with frequent pedestrian pile-ups in this most central of Spanish plazas, but the work has finally paid off; the plaza is now absolutely gorgeous and it will be quite a treat to chime in this new year at our new plaza! The countdown begins at 20 seconds to midnight at which point our New Year’s ball begins to steadily descend, finally touching down at midnight.
It is customary to eat twelve grapes in tune with the twelve strokes of midnight, one grape per stroke. If you successfully eat all twelve before the twelfth gong sounds, congrats, you’re in for a lucky year. This relatively recent tradition only started in the early 20th century, when a bumper crop left farmers in Alicante with more grapes than they knew what to do with. To stimulate demand for grapes that year they devised this tradition which has since spread to all of Spain and beyond. Its popularity is such that there is even a related turn of speech in the Spanish language; “¡nos van a dar las uvas!” (meaning, “soon it will be grape time”) is often said to chide the sluggish into hurrying up.
Will you be in Spain for the New Year? Come on over to Madrid and join the party at Puerta del Sol. This is an experience everyone should have at least once in their lifetime. Even if you can’t come over, go ahead and pick up some grapes and see if they can’t bring you some luck in 2010, Spanish-style!
Posted by gospanishabroad 
